St Levan

Coordinates: 50°02′28″N 5°39′43″W / 50.041°N 5.662°W / 50.041; -5.662
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

St Levan
Parish church of St Levan
St Levan is located in Cornwall
St Levan
St Levan
Location within Cornwall
Population459 (2011)
OS grid referenceSW3822
Civil parish
  • St Levan
Unitary authority
Ceremonial county
Region
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post townPENZANCE
Postcode districtTR19
Dialling code01736
PoliceDevon and Cornwall
FireCornwall
AmbulanceSouth Western
UK Parliament
List of places
UK
England
Cornwall
50°02′28″N 5°39′43″W / 50.041°N 5.662°W / 50.041; -5.662

St Levan (

civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The parish is rural with a number of hamlets of varying size with Porthcurno probably being the best known. Hewn out of the cliff at Minack Point and overlooking the sea to the Logan Rock is the open-air Minack Theatre
, the inspiration of Rowena Cade in the early 1930s.

St Levan lies within the

birdwatchers
, many who travel the length and breadth of Britain to watch rare seabirds.

Geography

The parish church is about eight miles (13 km) south west of

Dicentrarchus labrax), crabs and mackerel (Scomber scombrus).[3]

History

Neolithic flints have been found dating human activity in the area to 5000 years ago. Fifteen hundred pieces of worked flint and chert from the Bronze Age were found during the 1914 excavation at Pedn-men-an-mere[3][4] and an Iron Age cliff castle at Treryn Dinas may date back 2000 years or more.[5]

The cross at Rospletha

Many of the hamlets and farms with Cornish prefixes such at Bos and Tre (and possibly Ros) can trace their names back to 600–700 AD while Chy dates back to the 11th- or 12th-century. The first documentary evidence of a place name is Rospletha, which is mentioned in 1244 and the rest of the other farms are recorded over the next one hundred years.[3] Much of the land belonged to the manor of Mayon, Sennen and in the early 17th-century the land was divided between six heiresses, one of whom married John St Aubyn. A later John St Aubyn, became the first Baron St Levan of St Michael's Mount. The St Aubyn's estate purchased the freehold estate of Roskestral in April 1885 for £5,000. As well as the farmhouse and farm buildings there was 96 acres (39 ha) of land including the ″cliff lands″ around Carn Glaze.[6] Much of Porthgwarra, the land around Gwennap Head, as well as the farms Higher Bosistow, Roskestral, Sawah, Trebehor and Trevean are still part of the St Aubyn Estate.[3][7] Mr T Bedford Bolitho bought the Rospletha estate for £1500 in 1883. The 14 acres (5.7 ha) estate was described as ″fertile land″ and there was also a share of 50 acres (20 ha) cliff.[8][9]

Above the sandy beach at Porthchapel is a ruined rectangular building with a large flat granite slab and spring known as St Levan's Well. Below, cut into the cliff slope, are two buildings believed to be an early chapel and cell. The remains possibly date to the 7th- or 8th-century.

chapels at Treen (1834) and Trethewey (1868).[12][13]

The cross in the churchyard

There are five Cornish crosses in the parish; one in the churchyard, one on the churchyard wall and the others at Rospletha, Sawah and Trebehor.[14]

The first

Bombay, making Porthcurno the British terminal of the Empire's telegraph network. A land link was provided to London helping to make Porthcurno a centre of world communications. The Eastern Telegraph Company was formed in 1872, later to become Cable & Wireless. Porthcurno was also a training centre, sending operators all over the world.[3][15]

Governance

For the purposes of local government St Levan is a civil parish and every four years elects a parish council consisting of ten councillors. The principal local authority is Cornwall Council. Since local government boundary changes in 2021, the parish falls under the electoral ward of Land's End.

Wildlife and ecology

Much of the coast of St Levan parish is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and noted for the vegetation of waved maritime heath and for the geology. Heaths are widespread worldwide but are fast disappearing and considered a rare habitat in Europe. Rock sea lavender (Limonium loganicum) is an endemic plant that is found only in the parish of St Levan. All the colonies are within protected areas but may be vulnerable from climbers or walkers on the lower slopes where it occurs.[16]

birdwatchers and many travel the length and breadth of Britain to track rare seabirds.[19][20]

Some of the butterflies that can be found on the coast include grayling (

bee mimic and the larva feeds on thrift (Armeria maritima
).

Education

St Levan CP School is St Levan's community primary school, located in the hamlet of Bottoms. It is a very small school. Its current head teacher is Susannah Storey.

Notable residents

  • Harry Etchel Binns (1869–1945), a member of the Newlyn School
  • William Bottrell (born 1816), writer of three volumes of Cornish folk stories
  • Rowena Cade (1893–1983), designer of the Minack Theatre
  • Thomasine Dennis, the first Cornishwoman to write a novel, Sophia St Clare, published in London, 1806
  • John Piper (1903–1992), artist
  • Bertrand Russell (1872–1970), philosopher
  • James Howard Williams (1897–1958), known as Elephant Bill, soldier, elephant expert and author[3]

References

  1. ^ Place-names in the Standard Written Form (SWF) : List of place-names agreed by the MAGA Signage Panel. Archived 15 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine Cornish Language Partnership.
  2. ISBN 978-0-319-23148-7
  3. ^
    ISBN 1-84114-328-6
    .
  4. ^ "MONUMENT NO. 421312". PastScape. Historic England. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  5. ^ "TRERYN DINAS". PastScape. Historic England. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  6. ^ "Very Desirable Freehold Lands In The Parish Of St Leven For Sale". The Cornishman. No. 351. 9 April 1885. p. 1.
  7. ^ Gendall, Christine (1999). Porthgwarra. St Buryan: Churchtown Technology. p. 60.
  8. ^ "Sale Of Two Estates In The Neighbourhood Of Penzance. Property Still Increases In Value". The Cornishman. No. 263. 26 July 2019. p. 7.
  9. ^ "Sale of Roskestal". The Cornishman. No. 352. 16 April 1885. p. 7.
  10. ^ "St Levans Well and Chapel". PastScape. Historic England. Archived from the original on 6 May 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  11. ^ "Church of St Levan". PastScape. Historic England. Archived from the original on 6 May 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  12. ^ "Little Trethewey Wesleyan Methodist Chapel". PastScape. Historic England. Archived from the original on 6 May 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  13. ^ "Treen Wesleyan Methodist Chapel". PastScape. Historic England. Archived from the original on 6 May 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  14. ^ Langdon, A. G. (1896) Old Cornish Crosses. Truro: Joseph Pollard; pp. 298-99 &c.
  15. ^ "Porthcurno Telegraph Station". PastScape. Historic England. Archived from the original on 18 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
  16. ^ Bennallick, I.J., French, C.N., and Parslow, R.E. (2009) Vascular Plants. In CISFBR, Red Data Book for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. 2nd Edition. Praze-an-Beeble: Croceago Press.
  17. ^ "Treen Cliff" (PDF). Natural England. 1 July 1986. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  18. ISBN 1-873951-40-X
    .
  19. ^ "Porthgwarra to Pordenack Point" (PDF). Natural England. 1986. Retrieved 5 November 2015.
  20. ^ "Wildlife of Gwennap Head". National Coastwatch. Retrieved 16 December 2014.

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for St Levan.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=St_Levan&oldid=1204336138"